Flowers of Shanghai: Based on a Novel by Han Bangqing

An intoxicating, time-bending experience bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze, this gorgeous period reverie by Hou Hsiao-hsien traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies, and tensions swirling around four late-nineteenth-century Shanghai "flower houses", where...

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Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Hou Hsiao Hsien (Director), Lee Ping Bing (Cinematographer), Leung, Tony (Actor), Hada, Michiko (Actor), Reis, Michelle (Actor)
Format: Video Software
Language:Chinese
Published: London Criterion [2021]
Series:The Criterion Collection 1077
Subjects:
Summary:An intoxicating, time-bending experience bathed in the golden glow of oil lamps and wreathed in an opium haze, this gorgeous period reverie by Hou Hsiao-hsien traces the romantic intrigue, jealousies, and tensions swirling around four late-nineteenth-century Shanghai "flower houses", where courtesans live confined to a gilded cage, ensconced in opulent splendor but forced to work to buy back their freedom. Among the regular clients is the taciturn Master Wang (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), whose relationship with his longtime mistress (Michiko Hada) is roiled by a perceived act of betrayal. Composed in a languorous procession of entrancing long takes, "Flowers of Shanghai" evokes a vanished world of decadence and cruelty, an insular universe where much of the dramatic action remains tantalizingly offscreen - even as its emotional fallout registers with quiet devastation. [Cover]
Physical Description:1 Blu-ray-Disc (113 Min.) farbig

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Interlibrary loan Place Request Caution: Not in THWS collection!